OSAS EMMANUEL
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Federal Government has spent a whopping sum of $1.2 million to secure 40 huge transport and luxury buses for the purpose of evacuating Nigerian nationals stranded in war torn Sudan.
Onyeama disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He assured that the FG is doing everything possible to ensure that Nigerians are safely evacuated from Sudan before the end of the 72 hours window provided.
The Foreign Affairs minister also revealed that Nigeria is working with friendly countries such as Saudi Arabia to evacuate Nigerians by ship.
Speaking further, he welcomed every offer such as the one from Air Peace to ensue safe evacuation of stranded Nigerians.
“$1.2 million is what we’re being charged for the forty buses. There are forty huge transport and luxury buses, made available to us to transport to the Egyptian border. Of course, because of the risks involved and so many other things, a lot of people are going to also take advantage, they’re going to hike up the price. We saw that the French convoy was attacked and so it was difficult procuring these buses, but we had to do it because Nigerian lives matter to us.”
Responding to questions on the order in which the evacuation is being handled, Onyeama said that priority is been given to women and children.
“Talking about the order in which the evacuation is being handled, all lives are equal so we certainly wouldn’t want to give preference to diplomats. The diplomats are just as good as every other Nigerian. So we will take them all on board, depending on who is ready and available at any point in time.
“Our diplomats are there to coordinate so obviously they cannot be evacuated before the students and others, they have to be there to coordinate, maintain contact with the Sudanese authorities, ensure that there’s security being assured for the convoy for the journey and keeping in touch, as the Honourable Minister of State mentioned, with other friendly countries with whom we are coordinating so their presence is so important.
“Now, as regards the gender question, I think that’s obviously something we will have to look into in a bit more detail, but I think ordinarily, it would be appropriate that women and children should be given priority, I think that goes without saying.”
Reacting to the viral video of Nigerians that were denied entry at the Ethiopian border, the minister said “there were seven Nigerians who came to the border apparently, and were not being allowed in, apparently for visa reasons.
“I reached out to my counterpart in Ethiopia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who also is the Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and I sent him the video, one of the trending videos or viral videos, of the young person that was talking about their experience at the border and there was some information he asked me to provide, get our embassy to get in touch with the Ethiopian Embassy in Sudan, Khartoum, give the names, which we did, and a note verbale, asking for passage for them. So I believe the matter was solved immediately after that.
“Now regarding the evacuation process, what we are primarily responsible for is to ensure the safe evacuation from Egypt of all the Nigerians who want to leave. As the Honourable Minister of State has said, some have left through various orders and by ship, thanks to the Saudis. So the exact numbers that will now make it on that convoy to Egypt is not exactly clear at the moment, but once they get there, it’s from Aswan, MEMA, as the Honourable Minister has also said, the Director-General of NEMA is there and they are now going to take over with regards to getting them back to Nigeria. So whether they use military transport planes, C130, I spoke to the Chief of Defense Staff and he indicated that there were some military transport planes that will be available and of course you’ve mentioned Air Peace making that offer and there are other airlines too that their owners might also want to make an offer, but we will leave it to NEMA to coordinate who they use to transport by air, these citizens of ours.”
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, said “we have not less than 40 buses on the ground, but like I said, we are doing that in batches, depending on the numbers that we have at any point in time.
“We have no problem about the 72-hour window because we talked to all the authorities concerned and we are on the same page. Let me also add that some Nigerians have already been evacuated by ship, I guess from Port Sudan, by the government of Saudi Arabia. Don’t forget this is a joint effort and we have friendly nations that are ready to assist.
“We have it on record that the Saudi authorities have been able to pick up some Nigerians and they’re transporting them by ship to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, from where they will link up and find a way of bringing them back from Jeddah, those that succeed in going to Jeddah. Talking about the window, we are making every effort to ensure that we make use of this window to evacuate as many Nigerians as we possibly can.
“Let me also assure you that the Aswan airport, because I’ve used it, it’s big enough to accommodate the aircraft that you’re talking about. So I know it’s certainly good enough and NEMA I would seize that opportunity to use the aircraft that has been offered by Air Peace, that I can assure you.” Dada said.
